


What's lost will remain

by ghostpun



Series: Birdmen Ghost Hunters AU [2]
Category: BIRDMEN - 田辺イエロウ | Tanabe Yellow
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, M/M, Other, but suddenly there was takeishi thrown in the side for plot so ig im rolling with it, continuation of my ghost hunters au!!, i am so sorry for flooding the tags so much, its SUPPOSED to be a focus on takayama and arthur, major character death is tagged because well arthur's dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 04:44:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16469009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostpun/pseuds/ghostpun
Summary: Takayama finds the corpse of a young boy and decides to help out his spirit.(happy halloween!)





	What's lost will remain

**Author's Note:**

> this started off serious but I'm not that much of a serious person, so it'll shift back and forth....hopefully
> 
> ps im so tired and I hope there arent any glaring mistakes < _ <

Someone had died again, Takayama could feel it. He had always tried his best to tune out the pain following other’s deaths, but sleeping always lowered his guard. This time, the individual had died in excruciating pain and he could tell by how his body seems to ache and scream, as if someone had dipped half his body in molten lava. He stretches his arms and breathes, trying to ignore the twinges. There goes his plans of trying to sleep this week.

Having really no choice, he grabs his jacket and slips out the door and into the dark night. He passes corridor and corridor, not even thinking, only following his gut instinct. As he moves farther and farther, he tries to focus on the newly deceased.

He feels his feet hit the shoreline sand, and Takayama surveys his surroundings. Usually, the only things to die on the shores were animals, but Takayama knows for a fact this spirit is human. It was too distinct. Down the beach, he can spot a glowing yellow figure, brightly lit.

His feet will him forward, following the light, and he eventually comes across a curled up corpse. Takayama crouches, tilts his head in curiosity. A burned up corpse on the shore? Had a ship exploded nearby? Takayama’s ability range is limited, so the other deceased members must be farther away, deeper in the ocean. He shivers at the thought of corpses floating in the sea. Best not to dwell on it.

He flips the corpse over to see the burned face of a young boy, probably around the same age as Takayama himself. Blonde and tan, with a ruined shirt. Most likely a foreigner.

He died with a look of shock. One eye, the one not burned, is open wide with fear. Takayama reaches out to quietly close it. He’d decide later if he’d bury it or leave the corpse out in the open. He stands up and wipes his hands on his jeans, then turns to the side to acknowledge the corpse's spirit. The boy’s staring at him, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Am I really dead?” He breathes out, his voice coming out as barely audible against the crashing waves. It echoes in Takayama’s ears, a slight jingle of bells accompanying. Takayama glances back down to the shriveled body, his avoidance is answer enough.

“Do you know me? Were we friends?” The spirit sniffles, wiping his face.

Takayama shakes his head. “What do you remember?” It was a tricky question to ask. Some ghosts fully remembered, others knew nothing. However, it’s hard to piece together another’s life when he shows up with the churning waves on a cold night.

“Nothing.” He replies, his voice cracking at the statement, and Takayama can see the ghost’s light dim ever so slightly.“I don’t recognize this shore, I don’t recognize you, and,” he weakly gestures to the curled up body, “and I don’t even recognize my own face.”

“That’s okay.” Takayama starts, “I’m here to help you.”

“How can you even see me?”

Takayama shrugs in reply. “It’s just something I can do.”

“You’re not dead too, right?”

“Not since the last time I checked.” Takayama cracks a smile, trying to follow the advice his friend Umino had suggested about being friendlier.

The boy laughs. “Are you always like this?” He sits next to Takayama, contemplates his next question. “Am I really stuck looking like this for the rest of my......death?"

“If you can imagine yourself as how you normally are, you should be able to focus your energy in reflecting that.”  
“Thank god. I was afraid I’d be barbecue forever.”

===

“What’s your name? I just realized I never asked.”

Takayama glances up to the ghost floating around his room.

Usually, ghosts couldn’t move past their burial site, but the ghost had followed Takayama home no problem. And without warning the other, too, causing him to almost drop a plate on his foot when the other boy asked him if this is where he _really_ lived. The Ghost had been hanging out at the apartment for at least a few weeks, mostly floating and staring at the ceiling.

“Takayama.” He supplies, straightening a couple things in his room.

“Takayama? What kind of first name is that?”

“It’s not, it’s my last name.”

“Then why don’t you tell me your first name?”

“We just met.”

The ghost blinks. The other blinks back.

“Oh my god,” he breathes, “Am I in Japan? Japan’s where they do that, right? I’m so glad I watched Naruto.”

Takayama feels his eye twitch a bit in annoyance but continues to say nothing.

“You see, that makes sense why all the billboards here are in Japanese. Holy crap, how have we been able to talk? I only know english and like, 5 words in spanish.”

Takayama flops onto his bed, staring up at the other. “Language barriers don’t matter to ghosts.”

“So I’m not speaking Latin or something?”

Takayama’s nose scrunches in confusion.

“It’s a dead language.” The ghost continues, folding his arms together. Takayama chokes out a snort. Fuck, he has to use that on Karasuma next week. He would kill him

“But what about my name?” The ghost wondered, tapping his chin. “I don’t remember it at all.”

“I don’t know a lot of English names to list off the top of my head, unless your name is Billy.” Takayama supplied. Maybe he could ask Sagisawa?

“Would I even remember my name?”

Takayama shrugged. “It might come back to you in bits and pieces.”

“Oh...” He looked so sullen, a large pout forming on his lips. Oh god, Takayama's feeling sympathetic.

Takayama looked out the window, it was probably about 5 am. His friends could be awake, so maybe he could borrow one of their laptops. Karasuma was pretty close, he wouldn’t mind, right? He’s stopped at his house in the middle of the night before. It was worth a shot?

“C’mon.” Takayama says. Maybe he could even crash while the spirit scrolled through the pages.

“Takayama, I swear to god.” Karasuma says, after seeing his friend standing at his door. “It’s 4 in the goddamn morning, did you even sleep?”

A beat passes, Karasuma sighs.

“Of course you didn’t.” He stands to the side to let Takayama in. “So? What ghost is bothering you this time?”

“This time?” The ghost gapes. “How many times have you done this?”

Takayama ignores the floating boy behind him.

“There’s a kid about our age. He doesn’t know his name, so I was thinking of looking up English names until something rang a bell.”

Karasuma pinches the bridge of his nose before turning around and walking to his room, gesturing him to follow. “That would take forever, Takayama. Why don’t you just look up recent news regarding his death to see if anything matches?”

He blinks as he enters his friends room. “Oh. That’s…a really smart idea.” He says, smiling at him.

Karasuma shoves his laptop into the other's arms, obviously blushing. “Whatever. Let me know if you need help.” He plops back onto his bed and curls back asleep.

“Awww, cute.” Arthur coos at the balled-up boy. “You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend!”

“We’re not dating.” Takayama mumbles, powering up Karasuma’s laptop. _At least not yet._

“Hey man, I don’t judge!” Arthur grins and flips upside down. “I once dated my best friend Thrush, didn’t work out though. Besides,” he sighs happily, “I’m much happier with my girlfriend Robin.” His eyes widen as he flips back around. “Woah! That was like... three whole pieces of information.” He laughs as he counts on his fingers. “I’m bi, I have a best friend named Thrush, which, what kind of awesome name is that? And I have a girlfriend named Robin!” His grin brightens until he suddenly stills, letting his hands drop with his face. “...Had. Had a girlfriend named Robin.”

“Do you have any idea of your name?” Takayama states, trying to change the subject. He pulls up an American news site and types in the word “explosion”.

“No idea. Maybe it has to do with birds, huh?” He floats closer to Takayama. “Hmm, maybe something like Rooster? Haha, no. Maybe Cockatiel? My hair looks like it.”

“Why would anyone willingly name their kid with the word ‘cock’ in it?”

“Oh man, don’t even get me started on the name 'Richard.'”

“Remind me later.” He moves the cursor to click on a new story. Reads a couple lines, eyebrows pinched together.

“What’s it say?” The other asks, peering over Takayama’s shoulder.

“Not much. An explosion in some facility on the coast, a lot of people were injured and killed, but it doesn’t say who.”

“Oh! What about the comments? I’ll have you know comments can be quite helpful on the off chance.” The Ghost huffs, after seeing Takayama's look.

Takayama gives in and scrolls down to see a bunch of comments.

“Are these all….conspiracy theorists?”

“Oh my god, no way! I love reading that stuff!” The Ghost beams and Takayama wheels out of the way. Apparently, Takayama notes, the kid could read any language too. He’s internally glad, he was just kind of making the whole “communication regardless of language” thing up on a whim.

“It’s mentioning a lot about some group nicknamed the ‘Phoenix Flock?’”

“‘Phoenix Flock?’”

“Oh god,” a groggy voice groans, “Not those guys. Why are you even looking that up?” Takayama turns his head to see Karasuma waking up, stretching his arms behind his head.

“Huh?” Takayama says, intelligent as ever, distracted from watching him run a hand through his bed-head.

“Ugh, here.” Karasuma shifts near the desk and pulls the laptop towards him. “They’re this group of supernatural investigators in America. Kinda lowkey by normal standards, but they have a huge following in the Ghost-hunting community. Though I haven’t heard anything from them in a while, people are getting concerned.”

“Why ‘Phoenix?’” The ghost whispers.

"Why ‘Phoenix?’” Takayama echoes, so Karasuma can answer.

“Nothing special, just the name of their annoying leader, Arthur Phoenix.”

“Hey!” He hears the spirit practically pouting.

“Here’s a picture of him.” Karasuma says, before turning the laptop around. He points to an image of a few teenagers, one front and center and clearly the leader. Takayama eyes widen.

He hears behind him a soft “No way. That’s...” Takayama grimaces as the ghost's words fail.

“I think we found Arthur."

Karasuma squints in confusion. "What? Oh." His eyes widen as he looks about the room. “Are you saying-?! Shit. Now way. Uh, I meant no hard feelings when I called you annoying...Okay, only a little bit. Seriously, that whole bit with getting international attention? Not cool. Oh, god." He drags a hand down his face.

**Author's Note:**

> follow more of this au @ birds-and-boos on tumblr!! like an art I did of this fic
> 
> I'm going to try and make this a multi-chapter fic


End file.
